Effects of different kinds of shell powder on the structure and properties of polycaprolactone-based composites

Abstract

Agricultural waste shells are another source of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Waste shells contain natural polymers such as polysaccharides and protein which can react with active groups in a polymer by melt mixing to form a compatible layer in a composite material. The formation of a compatible layer helps to improve the compatibility and material toughness of a composite. At the same time, the presence of CaCO3 in waste shells can also help to improve the hardness of a material. Therefore, this work mainly focused on the preparation of composite materials using different kinds of shell powder, and also studied the effects of the interface structure between shell powder and polycaprolactone (PCL) and properties of the composite materials. In particular, this work, studied the effects of the crystal forms of various shell powder as well as the content of polysaccharide and protein on the tensile performance and thermal properties of composite materials. The results implied that the tensile performance of the composites prepared from different kinds of shell powder were slightly different. The composite prepared from shell powder containing aragonite-structured CaCO3 had a better elastic modulus than the composite prepared from shell powder containing calcite-structured CaCO3. Likewise, the composite material prepared from scallop shell powder had the best toughness and thermal properties. This work has laid a foundation for exploring the effects of all sorts of shell powder on the structure and properties of composite material.